Permanently Beautiful

On NBC’s The Doctors yesterday, permanent makeup took center stage as the doctors discussed the benefits permanent makeup offers many women. As obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Lisa Masterson and plastic surgeon and reconstructive surgery expert Dr. Drew Ordon pointed out, permanent makeup offers time-saving advantages for busy women from soccer moms to corporate executives who want to look their best but don’t have time to spend on makeup. Permanent makeup also meets the beauty and grooming needs of women who are allergic to makeup; people who suffer small motor impairment caused by arthritis, disease or aging and find it difficult to apply makeup; and women with vision problems who cannot see well enough to apply makeup.

The audience observed permanent cosmetic procedures being performed on 35-year-old mom and pilot Trish. Extremely fair, Trish had very light eyebrows with some small gaps in the hair growth and nearly invisible eyelashes. With facial skin, lips and eye lids nearly the same tone, Trish’s face lacked color and definition, leaving her looking sallow and washed-out without makeup. Using permanent cosmetics, Trish’s eyebrows were darkened and the gaps filled with hair-like brush strokes. Permanent eyeliner was added to bring out Trish’s eyes and add definition to her lashes. Permanent lip color in a shade somewhat darker than her skin tone was applied to define her lips. The transformation was stunning. Trish went from mousy to vibrant right before the audience’s eyes!

Next time: Permanent makeup advice from The Doctors

Nicole Scherzinger

With her sultry smoky eye makeup, gorgeous high cheekbones and beautifully defined full lips, Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger was a dance floor standout from the first day of this season’s Dancing With the Stars. Her sexy smoldering look was a good match for the flirty crowd-pleasing tango she danced with partner Derek Hough to win the mirrorball trophy this week. Nicole’s weekly appearances on the tenth season of the popular dance show have women across the country clamoring to re-create her alluring smoky eye makeup. Far from the overdone shadowing of some smoky eye fans, Nicole’s eye makeup highlights and outlines her eyes, making it impossible to take your eyes off them. Well, maybe not impossible. I’m sure my guy wasn’t the only one checking out those incredible costumes!

To create Nicole’s smoky eyes, first apply a sheer nude color over the entire lid. Then, from the lid to the crease, apply and blend a rich plum or dark brown eye shadow. Blending is the key to creating perfect smoky eyes. Keeping eyeliner as close to lashes as possible, line your entire eye in the same plum or brown shade as your shadow. Use a super thin brush to gently smudge liner up toward your crease and toward the eye’s outer edge. Finish with a double coat of black mascara.

Artistically applied permanent eye liner makes your eyes look sexy 24/7 and creates the perfect foundation for Nicole’s sultry smoky eyes.

On a recent Today Show segment, co-hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotba embraced the natural look, appearing on the show sans makeup. Before revealing their faces to the cameras on “no makeup day,” the women took viewers for a backstage look at the intense daily makeup preparation that goes on before the cameras roll. Ann Curry said, “Sometimes I feel like on the show I wear enough makeup to frost a cake.” While the Today Show women agreed they felt “liberated” without makeup and often went “au naturel” at home, they professed to more than mild nervousness about appearing “naked” in front of their television fans. At 45, Honda said she felt self-conscious without makeup. Kathy Lee confessed, “… it’s the dumbest thing we’ve ever done. I had a classic anxiety dream about it…”

What we noticed in checking out the photos from Today’s ”no makeup day” is that without their makeup these high-powered, attractive women look washed out and older. It looked like a few of them fudged a little, too. Kathie Lee definitely looked like she was wearing mascara and eye liner. Natalie Morales may not have been in full face makeup, but her eyes were definitely made up. Check out the pics on The Huffington Post and see what you think.

Women who wear permanent makeup have the best of both worlds. They enjoy the personal freedom of not wearing makeup with the confidence that comes from knowing they look beautiful every minute of the day.

Permanent Eye Makeup

If you wear contact lenses, you know how painful it can be when a flake of mascara or a particle of eyeliner drops into your eye and becomes trapped behind your contact lens. Instantly, you’re tearing up and squinting in pain. Your eyes tear uncontrollably, a natural reaction to foreign matter that helps the eye cleanse itself. Unfortunately, all those tears start dissolving your eye makeup, making matters even worse and smearing contacts with a hazy film of makeup. It can be a struggle just to remove your contact lens so you can clear out the debris. All this from a nearly microscopic flake of makeup!

Makeup experts recommend putting on your eye makeup before you put in your contact lenses to help prevent such problems, although poor vision (the reason you wear contacts!) can make that tricky. To conceal the redness experienced by many contact lens wearers, try using a beige-colored eye pencil to line the inside rim of your eyes. Eyeliner can be applied directly over the beige pencil. Using liquid eyeliners and cream or gel eye shadows, which are less apt to flake during wear, instead of pencils and powders will also help prevent makeup from interfering with contact lenses. 

Artistically applied permanent makeup is the only foolproof eye makeup solution for contact lens wearers. With permanent eyeliner and permanent eye shadow, you never have to worry about applying eye makeup and your eyes always look naturally gorgeous.

Glam-rock is back and it has put punky, dramatic, kohl-rimmed eyes back in the spotlight. With the opening of the Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning film The Runaways, eye makeup is stepping back in time to revisit the 1960s when Joan Jett and Cherie Currie formed one of rock’s most famous all-girl bands. In keeping with the film’s realistic portrayal of the young teens’ rise to fame, makeup artists were instructed to create a look that was realistic, teen-aged blemishes and all. Without the typical Hollywood flawless skin to wow the camera, makeup artists for The Runaways focused on the eyes.

Pouring over old magazine ads and watching hours of concert footage of the real Runaways performing, makeup artists for the film focused on weird, tiny details to create an authentic look on screen. For instance, Jett and Currie painted only one fingernail red. But it was their dark smoky eyes that created the band’s signature look in the ’60s.

With permanent cosmetics you can create your own permanent signature look. Permanent eyes can rim your lids in thin or thick permanent eyeliner in the color of your choice so you look beautiful day and nice. When you want to glam or punk it up, add a thicker layer right over your permanent cosmetics. Permanent makeup gives you the best of both worlds.

Jen's Natural Look

Jennifer Aniston worked her way into American hearts as Rachel on Friends and never left. She’s the proverbial “girl next door,” fresh and wholesome looking. Jennifer uses a few special makeup tricks to create her very natural look. She may look like she’s not wearing makeup, but it’s a light hand and adept application that give Jen the natural appearance admired by so many.

How does she do it? Jen only applies eyeliner to her top eyelid, usually leaving the bottom lid naked or applying only a faint, thin stroke of liner to the bottom lid. To enhance her natural look, Jennifer chooses eyeliners in pale grays and light browns. She counts on a medium coating of mascara on both top and bottom lashes to make her eyes pop. To enhance her eyes, Jennifer favors barely there, lightly applied eye shadow in pale grays, beiges, pinks and lavenders. Jen sticks to natural looking lip colors in light brown, peach or pink. Her trick is to color her lips just slightly darker than their natural color.

Permanent makeup can give you Jennifer Aniston’s natural look 24 hours a day without tedious time in front of the mirror. You can have permanent eyeliner in a natural shade tattooed on just your upper lid or add a barely there line to your lower lid. Permanent eye shadow can enhance your eyes with natural beauty 24/7 and it never cakes or creases. Your lips will always look naturally beautiful with permanent lip color. Permanent makeup is the ultimate natural look!

Have you ever heard a woman say, “I feel naked until I put my face on”? For many women putting on their makeup is more than part of their morning routine, it’s a symbol of their femininity. Like doing their hair and dabbing on their favorite scent, applying eye makeup and lipstick makes women feel more beautiful, self-confident and ready to meet whatever the day has in store. Even women who favor the natural look and choose to skip foundation prefer the way they look with a dash of eyeliner, a swipe of mascara and a touch of lipstick. Makeup enhances our natural beauty and makes us feel good about ourselves.

A stroke, arthritis, muscular dystrophy, long illness, accident or other degenerative condition or disease strikes at the very core of who a person is as an individual and a woman. The inability to apply makeup when motor skills are lost and hands shake can be a tragic blow to a woman’s sense of femininity and sense of self. Without makeup she no longer sees in the mirror the woman she once was. It makes her loss cut even deeper. Permanent cosmetics can restore a woman’s sense of personal beauty and her self confidence in her appearance.

Artfully applied cosmetic tattooing can create beauty-enhancing permanent eyeliner, permanent eyebrows, permanent lips or even a full face enhancement. With permanent makeup, a woman who is no longer able to apply her own cosmetics can still look like she’s just applied fresh makeup.

The economy will continue to drive the way we dress and live in 2010. Realistic fashionistas are going practical with a return to smart basics. Expect clothing to feature good, sturdy fabrics in mixable neutral shades of brown and gray. Clean lines, simple cuts and a more classic look will dominate 2010 fashion. Versatility will be the name of the game. Women will splurge on just a few fabulous pieces that offer multiple ways to dress up or dress down their wardrobe. For example, savvy shoppers will look for items like a sleek leather tunic that can be worn as a mini-dress, vest, tunic over leggings or even light outerwear. Women will continue to look for smart ways to stretch their clothing budgets. Individual expression in the midst of Plain Jane fashions will come from colorful custom-designed jewelry and artfully applied permanent makeup.

This year the eyes have it! In 2010, permanent eye makeup will focus attention on your beautiful face. It’s your eyes that will add that special spark of alluring fire to practical fashions. Perfectly arched and feathered permanent eyebrows will provide a window to eyes exquisitely lined with permanent eyeliner. Add neutral shadows for serious work hours, then go wild with a slash of neon bright shadow for evening wear. The spring release of Tim Burton’s film version of Alice in Wonderland is expected to add a hint of Victorian whimsy and wild psychedelic colors to fashion accessories and makeup pallets this spring.

The natural look may be in for every day wear, but New Year’s Eve calls for glitz and glam! Vibrant, bold lip colors in glossy, wet shines say you’re ready to party. New potted lipstains are fun, wear beautifully and are available in flashy, bright colors. Or choose a long-lasting lipstick in one of this season’s bold new reds topped with a slick, glossy shine. Remember to carry a refresher to touch up your lips right before that special midnight kiss!

Shimmer is in for New Year’s Eve. Glam up your eyes with a line of shimmery eyeliner and a couple extra swipes of mascara. For ultra bold eyes, layer two thick lines of shimmering eyeliner above lashes, overlapping just slightly. Depending on your mood, use complementary or contrasting colors or pick up a colors from your dress.

If you like glitter, this is your night to shine! A dusting of glittery blush across cheeks and decolletage adds sparkle. Roll on glitter for hair is fun, just don’t overdo it. A little glitter is alluring; too much makes you look like a Christmas ornament.

Naturally, if you wear permanent makeup, you’ve already cut your prep time. Just moisturize and add a little pizzazz. Your already perfect permanent makeup — eyeliner, lipliner, lip color, etc. — serves as a fabulous foundation for adding a little glitter to cheeks, glimmer to eyelids and shiny color to lips. Just apply New Year’s Eve makeup right over your permanent makeup.

It’s hard to believe but the ’80s are back! Big hair, football-size shoulder pads, kohl-lined eyes and ruby red lips. In the 1980s women came into their own in the workplace. Clothing fashions, hair styles and makeup reflected women’s new-found power on the job and served to augment her presence in heretofore male-dominated board rooms. Fashions were forceful and imposing and makeup had to be bold and colorful to stand out. In the 1980s women wore more makeup and eye makeup and lip colors were darker and more noticeable than they had been before. It was a look that commanded attention.

Research has shown that every 30 years fashion styles repeat themselves but with a new twist on the original. Today’s makeup styles give the brassy, look at me ’80s a  softer, more sensual appearance that exudes self-confidence and says we’ve arrived and we’re here to stay! The dark kohl-lined Goth eyes of the 1980s have been softened into far more sensuous smoky eyes. Lips are still red; but instead of the bold, brassy reds of the ’80s, lip colors are softer, warmer, earthier reds. It’s the lip liner not the bright color that calls attention to the lips today; but instead of matching liner and lipstick colors, liners are going more brown this season. And put the lip gloss away during the day. Matte-finish lip stick says I’m in charge at the office.

Permanent makeup can give you the perfectly applied lip liner that is the base for today’s powerful, sensuous red lips.